Demons Can Be Angels Too
by FallenPetals712
Summary: Piper has one mission: Find and capture her target. But will her unexpected friendship get in the way of her mission?
1. Chapter 1

**CHAPTER ONE **

This was never supposed to happen. I was never supposed to be here, working with my target, going AWOL.

My name is Piper. At least, that's what I call myself. They call me Subject Seventeen. I was created for one sole purpose: capture the subject known as Angel. Befriend her, capture her, and bring her to The School, the lab where we were both created and raised.

My first memory of The School was two scientists in white lab coats, AKA, whitecoats. They were marveling at me, my abilities, my wings. Yes wings, get over it.

I was genetically mutated as an infant, with avian DNA grafted into me. I have wings, an internal compass, raptor vision, and many more skills. To the scientsts, I am simply there to be studied.

When I was given my mission, at first I was ecstatic. Freedom. Then, I was horrified. Why should I do this? Why? Because if I don't, I'm dead. I'm a coward who only cares for myself. Too bad.


	2. Chapter 2

**CHAPTER TWO**

Let's go back a little bit, shall we? Like, to my mission breifing.

I'm pushed into a small conference room full of filing cabinents. It's shady, and a fuzzy television monitor is on the wall, surrounded by bulletproof glass. I groan inwardly at their tight-neck security. So paranoid... Urgh...

On the screen, is a shady figure's silhouette. I can't tell their gender.

"Hello Subject Seventeen. Please, do take a seat." says a warbled voice, that has definetly been audio mixed. The Eraser behind me pushes not-so lightly with the butt of his frighteningly large gun. I quickly comply, sitting in a stiff wooden chair in front of me. I keep my expression carefully blank. I didn't want to have to spend another week in the medium-sized dog crate.

"We have a mission for you. As you know, your DNA is comprised of two percent avian DNA and ninety-eight percent human DNA. You are, however, not the only successful recombiant. Other than our Erasers, (I wanted to turn around and smack off those wolfish smirks.) there are other avian-humans. There are six of them, who travel together in a 'flock.'"

"What? I thought- OW!" I am suddenly smacked on the head with a mix of heavy gun butt and thick Eraser fist.

"It would be in your best interest if you only spoke when told to do so. Do you understand?"

"Yes." I say, with a touch of hurt and anger in my hoarse voice. It isn't very often that I can speak without some jerk stabbing me with a needle or scratching across my dirty face.

Yeah, my life kinda sucks. Most sevenish, sixish year old girls wear princess crowns and pink everything. They have plenty of shoes and bathe well. If they get hurt, Mommy rushes over and kisses her boo-boo and puts a Hello-Kitty band-aid on it. They have lots of friends, and a nice teacher.

Me? I have evil whitecoats who put me through horrific experiments, I hardly ever eat, drink, or bathe. I'm surounded by people (and half people) who either want to kill me or test me. Lucky little [insert angry, possibly profane remark here.].

"As I was saying, there are other recombiants. Jonathan will be handing you a file now, that contains information on your subject and possible threats. You will read this in a short time." As the devil's advocate talks, a wimpy looking white coat with gigantic glasses hands me a thick file. The urge to flip through it is undeniable, but the throbbing of the bruise on my head stops me.

"Your subject to capture is known by the name Angel. She is about your age. Angel has ablities similar to your own. The full extent is unknown, but we do know some. Harris?"

At this, a burly guy who looks more like a lumberjack saunters up, holding a piece of paper. He hands it to me quickly, as if he is nervous. Considering my reputation around this place, I'm not suprised.

"Ahem, well yes, Angel has several abillities. She can read and control minds. She breathes under water and talks to fish. Angel has a high IQ for hacking and fighting. The rest of the flock can also hack and fight very well." Harris has a nervous twitch, and keeps peering at the director when he speaks.

"Your mission is to find and captue Angel. You will be under constant surveillance. Should you stray from our orders, you will be severly punished." I raise my eyebrows slightly at this last comment. "Right now, Jonathan is going to inject you with a special serum." I resist the urge to scream and attack him. Oh how I hate needles... It is fairly painless though.

Satisfied, the director continues."The serum is full of tiny nanobots. Should you disobey orders, we can activate the nanobots. They will attach to your nerves and cause a variety of pain, depending on how you disobey. Understood?" I nod, stifling a gasp as a series of profanities blares through my mind.

"Good. Then prepare to leave in five hours."


	3. Chapter 3

I hate this. I hate it, HATE it. I hate it even more than usual.

Rather than shove me into a dog crate in a horiffic lab, I'm in a dog crate in a freezing cargo plane with nanobots in my system that could kill or seriously harm me. I envy you people who are normal. Even bums that are unemployed and living in a hovel. Seriously, I would absolutely LOVE a nice hovel right now.

One of the Erasers in the plane jostles my cage. "Little chilly eh, birdy?" A couple other Erasers snicker. "Wanna little snack birdy? You gotta tweet for it!" He's holding a bag of birdseed in front of my face. The other Erasers are in hysterics.

I smile and quickly sink my teeth into his furry paw. Little birdy doesn't like to be taunted.

He starts to yell, and then someone smacks my head HARD with a gun butt. The Eraser I'd bitten growled and started cursing. "Next time you try to pull something like that, we get to push this little button." He grins and holds up a panel about half the size of his fist, with a small red button in the middle. Next to the button is a dial with the numbers one through ten on it. "I can activate your nanobots," he threatens, "and determine your level of pain."

"Great..." I mutter.

Suddenly, I feel an intense, fiery pain light up my back. I furiously fight the urge to scream. I really need to stop being so cocky.

Just as the pain ends, a couple of Erasers pick my crate up, not bothering to be careful, and the door opens. They not-so-gently toss my crate onto a luggage cart. I am allowed a few, peaceful moments of rest before I find myself in a lab. Great.

"Oh, proffessor, she is awake!" a short red haired woman in a lab coat is peering anxiously into my crate. I'm unlocked and led to a small briefing room with a few leather seats. A tall white haired man stands up and shakes my hand.

"Hello. You are Piper, yah?" The whitecoat had a thick German accent. I nodded curtly. "Zhank you, zhat vill do." He waves a dismissive hand towards the two Erasers tightly gripping my arms. They positioned themselves in front of the door, in case I try to make a break for it.

"Vell now. I am Professor Schmidt. I am here to give you zhe neccessary supplies you vill require. I vill also be briefing you. Come here please, Piper." I cautiously step forward. He picks up a small tan device, about the size of a dime, and presses it to the skin by my left ear. "Zhis vill record anyzhing you or your target and her accomplices say. It vill also broadcast your location from anywhere in zhe world."

"Zhis," he says, picking up a small rectangular box, "Vill be your rendevouz signal. Vhen your mission is complete, simply press zhis button, and ve vill send a rescue party." Professor Schmidt places it in my pocket.

Now, on to zhe briefing. Ve vill have an armored truck carry you beneath your targets. If zhey take zhe bait, ve vill give you further instructions through your locating device. If not, you vill return here for a plan B. Are you ready to go, yah?" I nod again.

"Off you go zhen." Professor Schmidt simply waves me off. There is no way I'm going to be able to escape. No way.


	4. Chapter 4

I've been dropped off in New York City, on top of an unfinished apartment building. The whole "armored truck" idea was a total flop, so I am supposed to stay here untill I see the flock. I shiver. The whitecoats gave me some ratty hiking gear, but it does nothing to shield me from the bitter wind. I glance down at central park, and I see someone climbing swiftly up a tree. _"Isn't that illegal?"_ Might as well check it out.

I jump off the back and unfurl my wings quickly. They are a deep, raven black, like my hair. For those of you who want to track down a mutant freak, I might as well describe my self. I have shoulder length raven-black hair, pale skin, sea green eyes, and freckles all over my nose and cheeks.

I swiftly lean right and left, drifting down to land gracefully on the asphalt of an empty parking lot. Might as well try here. There are two loud buzzing hums echoing throughout my mind. One is the normal hum of a big city. The other is a buzz of thoughts.

Normally, I just tone this out, but I need it right now, so I turn in the direction of Central Park. Suddenly, I am there, weaving through people. I race over to a tree and look up. There is a small little girl, who looks about my age. She has curly blonde hair, and the same ratty, unclean appearance as her five companions. Angel. She hugs a small, white stuffed bear in a fairy costume. _"I love you Celeste! Good night." _

I am quickly rushed back to my spot on the asphalt. _"I need to find them."_ I memorize the path and start running. I'm almost there when I accidentally bump into a tall, menacing teenager. He sticks his arm out to stop me. "Hey squirt, watch it!" He growls.

"Sorry." I step around his arm and try to continue, but his buddies step in front of me.

"Sorry don't cut it kid. We gotta teach you a lesson." The teen is behind me. Before I can react, he slams into my back and I rocket onto the concrete. It scrapes my legs, face and arms as I cry out. I spit out a curse and kick my legs back. He lets out a small "Oof!" and lands on his butt. I push my self up and make a break for a tree, but someone lashes out and knocks my feet out from under me, momentarily knocking the breath out of me.

The guy and his goons surround me, kicking and punching. I finally let out a wail of pain. _"This is almost as bad as the whitecoats." _I close my eyes and resist the urge to cry. Looking up, I can see the eyes of one of the goons. He seems... almost sorry.

Suddenly_, I see the goon again, but he is kneeling by his mother's bed. He promises to get her medicine for the poison the gang gave her. Just one more month._

The memory ends abruptly. I hear one thought loudly echoing, bringing out of the memory. _"Who are they? What the-"_ That's when an image of Angel punching a goon in the gut appears. Oh.

I black out after a final kick to my temple.


	5. Chapter 5

I awoke with a start, gasping as I sat up. What just happened? Wait, is that Angel? And... Max?

"Mornin' sunshine. Those guys gave you quite a beating. What did you do?" Max asked, leaning casually against a tree. I realized I was under a ragged blue blanket, leaning against a tree in central park. The rest of the flock was behind her, except Angel, who held Max's hand.

"Uh, I bumped into a guy and his gang beat me up." I tenderly touched my aching temple and winced.

"What's your name?" Angel asked curiously. She gave me a friendly smile.

"Um, Piper." Just at that moment, I heard a nearly inaudible _click_. A voice whispered into my ear, "Hello Piper. Zhis is Professor Schmidt. I am going to assume you have made contact vith zhe flock. Repeat after me at zhe appropriate time." I masked my expression. As soon as I could, I would "accidentally" break this thing.

"Well, Piper," Max said with a smile, "any idea where your parents are?"

Before Professor Schmidt could tell me what to say, I blurted out, "I don't know. I was raised by the whitecoats." I winced as a tiny zap pierced my spine. Angel frowned and looked at me, so I rubbed my temple in a convincing manner.

"Do not speak out of turn Piper, or it vill be vorse for you." Professor Schmidt's voice was cold and frightening. I averted my eyes from Max and the others.

Max exchanged glances with all of the flock (Well, she really just looked at Iggy) and looked back. "Ah. I see. Two percent Avian DNA?" I nodded.

"How did you escape?" Nudge is bouncing up and down with an eager smile.

Professor Schmidt beeps in and feeds me my story. "They took me outside for some environmental tests. I managed to hide at one point, and they thought I'd gone back inside the facility. When night came, they opened up the glass dome that surrounds the yard, so the temperature stays low. I just flew out and away." I inhale a breath and my stomach growls.

"Good job Piper. Ve vill continue monitoring your behavior. Zhat is all for now." It clicks again, and Schmidt is gone. What a relief! His accent is_ really annoying_!

Angel is staring intensely at me with a confused look. She seems frustrated, but I can't tell why. Upon catching my stare, she smiles and looks away.

_"Weird..."_

The little boy with blonde hair stands up and walk over to Fang. I think his name is Gasman. "Do you need someone to stay with? Cuz I think we can afford one more!" he looks questioningly at Fang.

"Really? Wow! Thank you, thank you, thank you!" For some reason, the joy I feel is real, not just... Something the whitecoats came up with to get them back. I feel as though I belong with them, and I should stay here. Unfortunately, I have a bunch of evil scientists who can kill me with the push of a button. Yeah.

**I am SO sorry that I didn't update sooner. Expect an update at LEAST once a month, but hopefully more frequent. -FallenPetals712-**


	6. Chapter 6

"So," Max says with a glance over her chili-cheese dog, "how old are you?"

I swallow my bite and shrug. "I think I'm six or seven. Dunno." I've been with The Flock for almost a week, and I have developed a very strong connection with everyone- everyone, that is, but Angel.

If I want to strike up a conversation with her, she'll answer breifly and walk away. She's always busy when I want to go with Max or Fang to a store. Angel is continiously giving me strange looks, mostly frustrated, confused, and a little mistrustful.

Max nods as Iggy says, "Join the club."

Gazzy yawns, accidentaly smearing chili on his cheek, and glances sleepily at Max. She smiles and tells us to finish up and hit the hay. I take a huge bite and spill chili on the ground. This food is unbelieveably better than purified water, protein meals, or whatever experimental diet they want me on. It tastes like heaven!

Everyone climbs under the blankets we picked up at Wal-Mart and curls up. I want to go to sleep. I need to go to sleep. I can't though, because I have an undying curiousity about two unusual things. The first; Professor Schmidt hasn't contacted me since when I met Max.

The second is far more pressing. I need to know what Angel thinks of me. I've been listening to her thoughts, and she is finally going to tell Max. I need to know if this bothers Max. I could say it's because I don't want my cover blown. The honest reason, is because I don't want Max to think I'm a bad person, that I'm with 'them.'

After lying awake for an hour, I hear Angel softly whisper, "Hey Max?"

"Yeah?"

"There's something... Odd about Piper. I can't read her mind at all. It's not blank, exactly, more like... She's blocking me. Kind of like static on a television." Angel sounded scared, and a little nervous.

"Maybe it's one of her abilities. We'll confront her in the morning, okay?" Max was calm and careful, as if she knew I might be listening.

Sadly unsatisfied, I began to drift off to sleep. Of course, as soon as I was hanging on the brink of consciousness, Professor Schmidt popped in. "Piper, ve have a mission for you, to retrieve zhe target. It vill commence in zhe morning. Now listen closely..."


	7. Chapter 7

This is officially the worst day of my life. When Max wakes up, she's going to confront me. I could either tell her the truth, or I could not tell them and proceed with the plan. If I don't go with the plan, Max and the others will be shot. I can't let that happen. So they must be captured.

Now, I must execute part one, before everyone wakes up. I reached into my pocket and pulled out the rendevouz signal. I activated it and put it back in my pocket. Now, they knew exactly where we were, if anything went wrong.

The next part was trickier. I had to sneak out to a small shop called Grahms Grocery and purchase some blueberry muffins. These muffins contained some sort of chemical that would knock the flock out long enough for them to be brought in to the School. I had to go fast enough to get them before anyone woke up.

I ran as fast as I could, sweating and panting as I pulled out five dollars. I slid into the store and ordered one normal blueberry muffin and six special blueberry muffins. I shoved the bill in his face and sat down at one of the tiny tables, breathing heavily. A short minute later, I was sitting on the roots of our tree, staring unhappily at the shadowy, sleeping forms of the flock.

Max finally woke up and woke everyone else up. I pulled out the bag of muffins with the biggest smile I could muster. "I got really hungry, so I went up to a bakery. They had a really good deal on blueberry muffins, so I got some for everyone." I passed out the "special" muffins and bit into my normal one. The Gasman and Nudge dug right in, while Max and Fang picked at their's. The muffin was like paste in my mouth.

"So, Piper. Angel has... noticed something." Max quietly mentioned. Fang looked up and shot a look at Max. I listened quickly as he thought, _'Angel, why didn't you tell me?!'_

"Angel can read minds. She can read everyone's minds, but yours. Do have any idea why?" Max looked at me with questioning eyes. I gave her a slightly confused looked.

"I have no idea. I barely know my own abilites." I can read minds, and that's about it. "Maybe that's one of them?" It was easier to look innocent if I was being mostly truthful.

"Oh, okay." Max smiled happily at me as she stood up. Everyone was done with their muffins by now. "Let's get..." Max clenched her stomach in shock and pain. Fang threw her a confused glance. "That... muffin isn't... sitting well..." Max slowly sank down to the ground. Nudge and The Gasman followed shortly.

"What was in those muffins?!" Fang shouted at me. Max's eyes were fluttering rapidly, and she had started to groan.

"I don't know, I-" I made the mistake of listening to Max's thoughts right then. _'We trusted you! We accepted you as one of us, and you betrayed us. How could you Piper? How could you?'_

I sat down and observed the scene before me, with tears welling in my eyes. Max had passed out, along with Nudge, The Gasman, and Iggy. Fang had sunk down and was almost out, but Angel was fighting it.

I finally let the tears spill out, soaking my shirt. "I'm sorry! I-" A burst of intense pain paused my sobbing.

"Piper, zat ees enough! Are zhey all out?" Professor Schmidt snapped angrily. I continued my sobbing. "Piper, ve do not feel sorrow here. It ees all for science, you see?" My tears continued stronger now, partly fueled by anger. Science? This is horrible.

"Piper, if you do not stop crying zhis instance-"

"Shut up! Get out of my head!" I furiously ripped off the microphone and shredded it. Before I could attempt to move Max, a wave of vicious, unrelenting, torturous pain racked my body. I screamed, screamed as loud as I could, and finally blacked out.

**I haven't been able to post in a while, because I was at camp and on vacation. So, to make up for it, I'm going to post two or three more chapters this month! Except them within a week or so of each other. Unfortuneately, school starts in week and a half, so I might post even less frequently. :( Please rate!**


	8. Chapter 8

When I awoke, I thought I was dreaming. More like having a nightmare, because I was stuck in a dog crate. I closed my eyes again, willing this to not be true, but when I saw the others, I had to suck it up and face reality. Somehow, I managed to twist myself to a position where I could very clearly see the others in their crates. Angel was the only one who was also awake, but all I heard from her was an icy cold silence.

Angel was blocking her thoughts. How? I know I've been subconciously blocking my thoughts, but how could Angel do that? Suddenly, I heard her voice in my head_. "It's easy. Blink twice if you can hear me."_ I blinked.

_"I want an explanation right here, right now. Why are we here?" _Angel was very clearly furious, and she wasn't going to take any crap.

I realized she'd have to read my mind, so the answer was already there. _"I had to. They told me to capture you, and if I didn't, they would kill me. I don't know why the others got involved." _I glanced out of the door and saw Nudge's foot twitch. No one else was awake, and the absurdly clean hallway was void of anything but the smooth, polished ground. I could make out the corner of a window, and it was late. Maybe 3 A.M.

_"Well, they've captured me once before. They left the rest of the Flock, and we kicked their butts, so, maybe they learned." _I heard a tone of fear, and I was suddenly immersed in her memories.

_Running through a maze with burning hot wires beneath her feet. Thoughts of brain dissection. Biting a white-coat. Shots, a treadmill, collapsing. Jeb, Jeb who had been her father, Jeb, who was now one of them._

I gasped quietly and felt tears on my cheek. The worst part about experiencing memories, is I feel as if I am the person. I feel their pain, anger, sorrow, desperation. I wiped off the tears and curled up in a ball. _"What do we do now? Angel?" _Angel had cut me off. Her trust was completely gone, and the others would be no better. Emotionally exhausted and sore all over, I fell into a restless sleep.

I awoke to a loud knocking noise outside of my cage, and saw a huge, furry eraser, smiling at me. "Welcome home little birdy. Wake up time!" I scooted as far back in the cage as I could go and glared at him. He pulled out the remote that controlled the nanobots, and waved it around threateningly.

With a sigh and a glare, I scooted out. The eraser's entourage of white-coats and erasers surrounded me and shuffled towards the breifing room. The monitor isn't on yet, and the whitecoats are taking seats around the table. I sit down in the one chair on the edge of the large conference table and close my eyes. A few minutes pass before I hear a loud click, and the same shady silloutte appears. The voice of the director is more warbled this time, as he or she greets us.

"Subject Seventeen, congratulations on your mission. Your testing will resume in one hour. You are dismissed." The director is absolutely emotionless. The director does not care. I am simply a lackey, and I do not deserve a reward for my effort. I am esentially useless. The only reason I haven't been eliminated, is because I'm an experiment.

I want to speak up, to say no. I do not want to test, I want to go home. Unfortunatley, home was with the flock, and they're here, because of me. I do not deserve anything.

I am led right back down the hall, to my cage. The stupid furry eraser tries to push me in, and I clamp my teeth on his disgusting paw, untill I taste blood. He screamed angrily, and slammed me into my cage. After slamming my cage door shut and jostling my cage a bit, they left. I counted down the minutes untill my torture began again.


	9. Chapter 9

Waiting is the most cruel form of torture. Especially when you are surrounded by people you want to be family. Especially when you have betrayed them, and they hate you.

There's a few things I could do. I could think about what an awful person I am. I could ponder what fresh new horrors await me. The best option, however, is to think of an escape. From the brief flash of memories Angel gave me, I saw them fly out of a dome with erasers and whitecoats tailing them. If I'm being logical, that's definitely out. My only hope of a plan, is to see a memory of recent schematics of the building. The only way to accomplish that, is to go through tests. Perhaps I can pick up on a whitecoat.

Half an hour passes. The corner of the window suggests it's around noon. I hear thumps and pieces of noise, human or not. People began to flood by, towards the cubicles to my right. Occasionally, a huge furry leg would shoot out and kick a cage. Gasman and Angel were staring at each other with pitiful smiles. Nudge was holding Fang's hand. Max was reaching towards Iggy's cage. I resisted picking up on their thoughts, and listened to the whitecoats.

_"There's some new kids. How awful for them." "Jerry's going to kill me!" "We need repairs on the fifth wing? How could there possibly be a hole in the ceiling?!" "Where the heck is my gum?" "Man, what a storm that was! I can't believe it hit one room away from my office! I hate having to walk all the way down there every morn-"_

Bingo. There was a hole in the ceiling, at the very end of the hall. Unfortunately, it was very far away. I have a vague memory of a lab down there, but I'm not certain. Suddenly, a whitecoat stops in front of my cage. "Subject seventeen, your testing is going to resume now. Please come with us." The female has a nasally voice. As she reaches down to unlock my cage, I resist the urge to break her finger. She opens the door as I crawl out and stand up, wordless. We walk to the right, confirming my suspicions about the testing lab. As we stop outside of the lab, I give her a sickly sweet smile, and raise my middle finger. She scowls, probably resisting the urge to smack me.

The room has a glass floor, covering water that looks to be six feet deep. The floor and ceiling are covered in tiny little spikes, sharpened to a horrific point. The nasally whitecoat pushes me to the center of the room, onto a thin metal plate, and leaves wordlessly. With no warning, the floor begins to slide out beneath me. I realize that the water is rising as well.

I started treading water as best I could, but when half of your life consisted of dog cages, you don't exactly have time for swim lessons. As the minutes dragged on, my lungs began to strain. I felt myself begin to sink. Regardless of my struggling attempts to float, my foot pierced itself on the sharp floor. I cried out in pain, filling my lungs with water. I began flailing my arms helplessly. Just as my lungs were about to burst, The water flooded out. The glass floor caught me before I could plummet into the needles.

I laid there for a long time, trying to cough up water, and inspecting my foot injury. After ten minutes, a whitecoat came back in. "You have completed round one of fifty. Are you ready to proceed?" God save me…

**Guys, I am SO SORRY! Forgive my inactivity... At least I'm going to try to post now! :D Please review, I'm a little rusty. **


	10. Chapter 10

Testing is unimaginably excruciating. These whitecoats try to unravel you, see what makes you tick. They want to see what you're made of. They have no moral or legal dilemmas, so they'll happily use whatever force or power necessary. It's the perfect recipe for evil.

Sadly, these people have no bed time. I was up for at least a day, by my count. I was running on treadmill for most of it, until my feet gave out. My feet have burns, I'm severely dehydrated, and my left eye keeps blurring. It's awfully hard to read minds and watches when you have hardly any water in your system, so I may have been going longer. Regardless, I'm freaking exhausted.

By the end of the day, a dog cage was like a plush cushion. After being tossed in, I barely noticed the others. After I had time to take a breather, I managed to pull myself up on my elbow and see that all the cages were empty. All of them but Fang's. Fang had bruises all over him, and there were tears in his jacket. He looked worse than I felt.

_ Fang? _I wasn't sure if he could hear me, but I was definitely going to try. _Fang, if you can hear me… If you can hear me, I'm really sorry. I… I had to. They were going to kill me, and they said you wouldn't be involved, and… I'm sorry. I'm so unimaginably sorry._

Despising myself, I felt a warm tear trickle down my cheek. I didn't deserve their forgiveness, did I? No, certainly not. I had made the choice to betray them, to save one life instead of six. Self-preservation is a very fickle manner. If you try to balance it with morals and logic, everything begins to get very confusing. You can't simply trade one life for another; each life is unique, and you can't give the life a value. Let's pretend you can. My life is practically worthless. I'm only wanted by madmen, because I am a science experiment, not because of what I have done or hope to do. There is no person on this planet, in this universe, who desperately needs and wants me. No history book will hold my name. No one knows me, and I don't know anybody.

Take a look at Angel. She's charismatic and lovely. She has a family, five beautiful, unique, and meaningful individuals. Each one loves her, and will fight to keep her. She can make an impact on the world, and she's already made an impact on the lives of those close to her. Angel _has _a life, unlike me. Angel, Max, Fang, Iggy, Nudge, and Gazzy…. They mean something. I don't.

As hours wore on, the others didn't return. The hallway was actually empty, which gave me a sense of foreboding. My feet had begun to regain feeling, but my quiet sobs certainly didn't help my massive headache. Fang continued to find interest in other things, such as the floor, and the roof of his dog cage. I wanted to listen to his thoughts, but I couldn't bring myself to do so. He deserved privacy. Unfortunately, my mind is awful at fending off boredom, so I stooped that low.

He was thinking of Max. Yes, that much I could understand. Fang's mind seemed different, like a cluttered, convoluted stream of thoughts. It was hard to weed out a complete thought, and I felt as though I was wading through a river of mud. It was difficult to piece together the little fragments.

He loved Max, very much. It seemed as though it was beyond a familial level. He… He wanted to run away to an island. Fang didn't want to play their game; he didn't want to be a pawn. He wanted to protect his family. He loved Max. Yes, that one popped up a lot. I decided to search for any thoughts of myself. I wondered if he'd gotten my message. I only saw a short clip of his memory.

_Max! Oh God, what is going on?! "What was in those muffins?" I shout. Piper looks at me helplessly. Nudge and Iggy are down now, and I can feel myself sinking. We trusted her! Gazzy is down. Finally, another kid like us, and it's all some elaborate plan. Angel is struggling to stay awake. My eyes are closing rapidly. I hear Piper begin to sob, but her words are drowned out by a ringing in my ears._

I jerk up, smacking my head on the cage roof. Memories are always painful, but this one was awful. I was actually Fang, not an observer. There's something unique about him, that I just can't pinpoint. Rubbing my tender head, I glanced out into the hall. Max was at the other end, bruised and battered, surrounded by an eraser escort. I could just barely make out Iggy behind her, and it looked like Nudge has returned to her cage while I was sorting through Fang's mind.

As excruciating as it was, I waited until the entire flock was back. It had been five hours or more, and the building was practically empty. Max was giving everyone reassuring looks, while Fang glared into the distance. I quietly cleared my throat, and saw five pairs of eyes dart towards me for a second, before returning to wherever they'd been. "Guys?" My voice was almost a whisper. "I… I'm really sorry." I pulled my legs up and hugged them. "They were going to kill me, and I didn't know what to do, and-"I broke off, holding in a sob. I'd had enough crying for today.

Not a single soul in that room responded in any way. No one looked at me. No one thought about me. I was worthless. Be that as it may, I needed a plan. I'm going to make it up to them, I swear, even if it means sacrificing myself. That's okay; I'm worthless anyways.

**Hey guys! There should be at least three chapters left, no idea how many I want in total. Maybe a sequel? Who knows.**

**Aaaanyways, I'm going to uber busy this summer. Most recently, I'm going to be on holiday for 2-3 weeks. If I get a good amount of reviews, I'll probably be more motivated to post as soon as I get back. :P**


	11. Chapter 11

Escaping this place is going to be very, very hard. I need to get the Flock out of here, ASAP. Unfortunately, they have little to no trust in me. I can't just say, "Hey, let's escape!" Why on Earth would they believe me? The other problem is actually _getting _to the office with the broken ceiling. If I could somehow convince the others to follow me, how could they possibly all get out? The whitecoats are careful to avoid having everyone out at the same time. Plus, if I tried to unlock a cage, I'd get a bullet in the head. This was going to be tricky.

The ideal time to escape is night, when the building is fairly vacant. However, a few assorted whitecoats typically stay for overtime. Pondering my predicament, I noticed Nudge, Gazzy, and Iggy had all vanished while I'd been thinking intently. Angel was glaring intently at me, but when I turned to look, she found far more interest in her tattered sleeve. I tentatively tried to contact her.

_"Angel?"_ She threw a furious glare at me, angrily replying. "_What do you want?" _I could hear her voice dripping with venom. Sucking in a deep breath, I began.

When I'd finished explaining my plan, Angel just stared at me. _"Why do you even care?"_ Offended, I decided to try something. With a steep glare, I began focusing very hard. _"Take a look."_ I sent every memory of the Flock I had to her, bombarding her mind with memory after memory. I made her feel my bittersweet happiness at their acceptance, my joy at sharing a home of sorts with them. She endured every excruciatingly painful thought of self-pity and worthlessness that had every crossed the threshold of my mind. I watched as her eyes widened and filled with tears. After all of the memories had cycled through, Angel jumped back with a start. She sucked in a deep breath and buried her head in her knees. I'd gone too far. I pulled my knees in and laid my head down on top of them.

I took a while for Angel to reemerge. Her eyes were bloodshot, and her face was red, puffy, and her lip trembled slightly. She sat there for another moment, shielding her face from the others. Our cages were at the far right and adjacent from each other. I heard her voice, quavering slightly, enter my mind. _"I'm-I'm sorry. Piper. I'm sorry Piper." _I hardly acknowledged her, pulling in my knees more. _"You have a really good plan Piper. We just need to figure out how to tell them, and when to do it." _Her face was calmer now, but still tinted faintly red. I sat up a little and gave a weak smile.

"_I think I can handle that." _I turned my attention to Max. This was going to take a while. Hoping she'd understand, I tried to send her the memory of the discussion Angel and I had just had. I decided to also send the memories I'd sent Angel. Hopefully she'd get it.

As the hours droned on, members of the Flock came and went. Each new arrival received the conversation and memories, often exchanging wild glances with Angel, until she too was called away. Gazzy and Nudge reacted similarly to Max, but with a few more tears; incredulous, doubtful, but trusting.

Iggy was another story entirely. As soon as the first memory began, his eyes widened, and kept going. I realized he was _seeing, _for the first time in many, many years. Tears of joy rolled down his cheeks, soon accompanied by tears of sorrow. He sat for a long time, pondering. I saw, for a split second, a smile grace his face. It disappeared almost instantly, replaced by a dull, uninterested look.

Lastly, there was Fang. I already knew his mind must be very different; his thoughts were incredibly hard to decipher. I was doubtful he'd experience the memories like everyone else, as a well-informed onlooker. I half suspected he'd see _as me, _making it infinitely more painful. With a bit of guilt, I sent him the memories. I saw his eyes widen ever so slightly, but he was very good at concealing his emotions. With a quick glance at his thoughts, I had my suspicions confirmed. He was living through the memories as me. As I waited for him to finish, I decided to ponder his connection.

I knew for a fact that Fang was unique. His thoughts weren't like everyone else's. If I were to read the thoughts of a normal person, it would be similar to the writing of a book. A single, straight line of thought, ended with proper punctuation. It's easy to follow and in a sort of linear fashion. Fang, however, was as if someone had weaved a series of uneven, wibbly-wobbly lines through a single line, bending and twisting it into a convoluted shape. It was never a straight line of thought, but rather a web of connecting thoughts. Shaking my head, I saw Fang staring intensely at me. His eyes, for half a second, were filled with pity and sympathy. He gave a nearly undetectable nod, and resumed staring at something far behind me.

With a quick bit of planning, we decided there was no point in delaying it any longer. The escape was going to happen tonight. Everyone had a part, and any mistake would cost everyone deeply. I'd assured Angel I was leaving with them, but I couldn't promise it. If someone is going to be sacrificed, it should be the girl with no family. I'm the girl who had betrayed her friends out of cowardice, and wallowed in self-pity for far too long. I'm the girl who doesn't matter. That's all that matters to me.

**I'm so sorry I keep posting so infrequently. . I'm thinking of wrapping this story up and ending with fifteen chapters. I'll try to post soon, but who knows if I will. :P**


	12. Chapter 12

A well thought out plan, even when perfectly planned, has a ninety something percent chance of failure. No matter what it is, there all almost always unpredictable variables. In other words, anything can go wrong.

This was the sole thought running through my head as the hours dragged on. Almost all of us were in the dog kennels, save for Angel and Fang. I kept running the plan over and over again in my head. So many things could go wrong on the way to the room. We just needed a bit of luck.

As far as I could tell, Fang always came back before Angel. Angel would come back shortly after everyone left for the night, with an entourage of three to five erasers. I kept sighing with relief as things happened as planned; Fang returned, albeit with a large purple bruise above his left eye. Like clockwork, the stream of white coats exited the building. Angel returned, with four erasers leading her. As they reached down and unlatched her cage, she turned towards each and I repressed a smile.

"You want to go turn off the cameras now." This was directed to the biggest two, and I shook my head in amazement as they nodded. They shuffled off, dazed expressions on their faces. She turned towards the other two Erasers, and instructed them to unlock our cages. We all climbed out, gathered behind Angel. She sent the Erasers off to disable any alarms. We all exhaled in relief. Okay, that worked.

"Shall we?" Max said with a smile. Gazzy grabbed Izzy's hand and nodded. I stopped for a moment, running over the map in my head. Max turned to me. "Which way?" I bit my lip, calculating.

"Head straight until the third hall, turn right, turn left at the second hallway, straight forward to the office. There's a password lock on the door. Then we head up and away through the hole in the roof." Everyone nodded, looked around. All clear.

We took off, running, running down that endless hallway. The doors blurred past me, and I nearly missed our first turn. We rounded into a red tiled hallway that seemed to stretch beyond even my enhanced line of sight. The doors were all dull gray, with precise black number painted on them. I tore my eyes away from the doors, and skidded to halt. A patrol of Erasers were at the very end. Must be the night shift.

Cursing under my breath, I jumped into the hallway directly to my right. The others followed suit quickly. Max leaned out, counting silently. Turning to us, she mouthed "Six. Try sneaking past. If not, we fight." We nodded, quickly filing behind her. We almost made it to the hallway before one spotted us. I almost ran towards them, but then I caught sight of the nasty looking gun one of the brutes held. I zipped down the hall to our left, sprinting as fast as I could. I figured we had a two minute head start, if that. Glancing around, I saw Gazzy just behind us, yanking Izzy behind him. Max, Fang, and Nudge were just ahead of me, while Angel was next to me. All here then.

We had just stopped in front of the office door when the clambering footsteps of the Erasers came. Nudge was standing by the door, doing… something. She didn't bother looking up, just shouted "Buy me some time!" Looking at the approaching group, I stopped suddenly.

There weren't six Erasers anymore.

There was an army of them.


	13. Chapter 13

In a situation like this, you don't have time to think. You just function on instinct. So that's what I did. I ran straight at the mass of Erasers.

God, I have bad instincts.

I managed to kick the gun out of the first one's hands, and I landed a solid hit to his furry chin. Before I could pick up his gun, one of the buggers cocked his weapon in my left ear, pressing the barrel firmly to my temple. I stood there for a moment, quivering, before I felt the gun slide away, and heard an "Oof!" from my left. I didn't bother looking, but said a silent thanks to whichever Flock member did that. Not pausing, I clapped my hands over the fuzzy ears of the nearest Eraser. He sank to the ground in pain, clutching at his ruptured eardrums. I turned away quickly, surveying the scene.

Nudge and Iggy were huddled by the door. Nudge's eyes were closed tight in concentration, and Iggy kept turning, trying to figure out how close the fighting was. Angel was surrounded by five Erasers, but they all collapsed at the same time. Never gonna get used to that. Gazzy and Fang were grappling with two erasers, back to back. Max was throwing punches left and right, knocking them out cold. As I took in the scene around us, one of the brutes managed to jump at me, knocking me down. He pinned me down, wrapping my arms behind my back, pulling at me. I twisted my head wildly, and caught a glimpse of Nudge pushing the door open. We had to go, now!

I struggled desperately, but the Eraser's grip only tightened. I watched in horror as Max was knocked to the ground, Angel picked up, Fang socked in the face. Gazzy was hit in the jaw, knocking him back. A cluster of Erasers began approaching Iggy and Nudge. No. No. Everything was falling apart. In one instant, our plan was falling into shambles. We weren't going to make it.

I erupted. With a terrible fury, I lashed out, snapping the Eraser's arms like brittle twigs. He cried out in shock, falling down. My foot shot out, knocking into his head. Without pause, I raced towards the Erasers that had approached the door. My fists and legs were a blur, lashing out against the furry hand that had snatched at Nudge and Iggy. They fell, and I saw shock cross Nudge's face. As I turned towards the rest of the flock, for a flash of a moment, I saw through Nudge's eyes.

My hair was whirled out in an inky black tornado, whipping wildly through the air. My mouth was open, letting out a terrible cry of anger. My skin was speckled red, and if I had been burned by the inferno within me. My eyes were no longer jade green, but a deep, scarlet red. The chaos behind them wasn't the worst part though; the worst part was that I couldn't stop myself.

I kept going, racing towards the stunned mass of Erasers. After I snapped three necks in a split second, the raised their weapons, or braced themselves. I heard something let out a furious cry as I spun on and on. It was only later that I realized that cry was mine. My thoughts began slipping away, turning into a stream of focused fury. Kill, kill, kill. God, it frightened me. Slowly, even the fear slipped away, and it was replaced with nothing but primal instinct and rage. I stopped hearing the loud cries of terror, the clicking of guns. I couldn't hear anything. My vision began to cloud over, as my senses pushed to blind violence. It took me a while to realize I had killed all of them.

I felt a tugging in my body, pushing me to continue. Kill, kill more, keep going. I struggled to remember why I shouldn't, why I needed to stop. I sunk down to the ground, fighting myself inside. _No, no, no, I must control myself. Stop. There is nobody left to kill. I can't hurt them. The flock. I can't hurt the flock. No. Stop. _

I felt something grab my wrists, hold them firmly still. I gasped as the fury subsided a bit, restoring my vision. Through my blurry eyes, I saw Fang's dark brown eyes searching mine. He was speaking, but I couldn't hear yet. I felt something wet drip down by my temple, sliding off my chin. Fang studied me for a moment, his eyes concerned. He gently released my wrists, backing up a little. I didn't miss the fact that he still locked his eyes on me as I slowly reached up, tenderly probing my temples. They stung like hell. I pulled my hand back, staring at the crimson blood on my fingers.

I heard Fang gently say, "You were clawing at your head. It's not too bad, just a couple scratches." His voice was far off, like it was in a tunnel. Even through that, I couldn't miss the carefully masked concern behind his voice.

I don't know how, but suddenly I had leaped into Fang, grabbing at his black jacket as a wail escaped me. I clutched at him as he tried to pull back in shock, and I began sobbing. It was terrifying to lose myself like that, to be swallowed by my rage. I curled into him, tears flowing freely down my face. Fang relaxed, and began gently rubbing circles into my back. At some point, Max came over and wiped off my face, stroked my hair for a little. Even though I was an awful, slobbering mess, the Flock came to me, and they comforted me. It was the best thing that had ever happened to me, because I knew they cared.

**GUESS WHO UPDATED AND PLANS TO DO SO AGAIN ASAP! :D **


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